Commentary

Details of JOSEPH WRIGHT

Born: c1795

Died: >1837

Source: Chaplains in the HEIC 1805 to 1835 (Rev Frank Perry, The Church In Madras 1904)

Biography: JOSEPH WRIGHT matriculated at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1815. He is described in the College entrance book as Middlesexiensis. He graduated B.A. in 1819, and in 1821 was appointed a Chaplain. After serving at Masulipatam for a year he went to Trichinopoly in 1823 and remained there till 1830. Here he was instrumental in having the Vestry School moved from the Fort to Puttur, and in saving the Vestry Fund, which was originally raised for the support of the Vestry School, from being used for mission purposes. After a year at Poonamallee he was gazetted to Bangalore in 1832 and there he remained till his retirement in 1837. At Bangalore he was active in the cause of Eurasian education, as he had been at Trichinopoly. He founded the Cantonment Girls School, which maintained a high character as a place of education until it was superseded by the Bishop Cotton Girls School in a more open and favourable position. His effort in 1836 to get St. Mark's Church enlarged, or rebuilt at the east end of the Parade Ground, was not successful. He died soon after his retirement.